Funding Structure for 9-1-1

For landline telephone service, a statutory fee is charged to all residential and business customers through telephone bills and remitted to the local exchange carrier (Example: Southwestern Bell). This fee is then paid to the City of Longview to cover the cost of implementing and maintaining the 9-1-1 system.

For competing local exchange carriers, a fee of 6% of the local exchange carrier charge is remitted to the City of Longview.

A statutory fee of $.50 per customer, per month, is billed to all wireless customers through their telephone bills and remitted to the Commission on State Emergency Communications (CSEC). The money is then reallocated to the City of Longview based
on percentage of population. This money is used to provide Phase I and Phase II wireless 9-1-1 service, which has been mandated by the FCC.

In addition to the service fee, there is a 9-1-1 equalization surcharge of 0.3 (three-­tenths of one percent) that helps pay for 9­-1­-1 services in low populated or rural areas where the monthly service fee revenue alone cannot adequately cover the costs of emergency communications. There is also a Texas Poison Control surcharge of 0.3 (three-tenths of one percent) to finance Poison Control Center assistance. These fees are remitted to the Texas Commission on State Emergency Communications.

With assistance from CSEC, local governments throughout Texas design and run their own 9-1-1 programs. Local programs are either operated by one of 24 regional Councils of Government, 24 Emergency Communications Districts, or city governments called Home Rule Cities. Longview is a Home Rule City.

9-1-1 revenues that are collected though the phone bills are submitted directly to the City of Longview. The Communications Manager, in keeping with state law, makes decisions regarding the spending of funds received from CSEC and Southwestern Bell.

9-1-1 funds pay for the equipment used by the 9-1-1 call­takers: The database where all of the caller's phone and location information is stored, the phone lines which deliver the call to the answering center, administrative costs for the local governments and administrative costs for CSEC.